Key Benefits

• Check how alcohol affects and stresses your liver.
• Spot early injury and alcohol patterns; AST, ALT, GGT rise, AST:ALT >2.
• Explain jaundice or dark urine; bilirubin reflects bile flow issues or damage.
• Gauge liver reserve and nutrition; albumin shows protein-making capacity and chronic disease.
• Best interpreted with INR, platelets, ultrasound, and your symptoms for severity.
• Guide safer treatment choices; adjust medications and supplements to protect liver.
• Track recovery with abstinence; falling enzymes and GGT signal healing over weeks.
• Support fertility and pregnancy planning; stabilize liver health before conception and prenatal care.

What are Alcoholic Liver Disease

Alcoholic liver disease biomarkers are measurable signals from the liver and blood that translate drinking’s impact into a biological story you can track. They show recent alcohol exposure (direct ethanol metabolites such as phosphatidylethanol, ethyl glucuronide, and carbohydrate-deficient transferrin), liver cell stress and injury (hepatocellular damage: AST, ALT, GGT), bile flow disruption (cholestasis: alkaline phosphatase and bilirubin), scar formation and tissue remodeling (fibrosis: hyaluronic acid, procollagen III peptide), and the liver’s factory output (synthetic function: albumin and clotting proteins). Together, they reveal where someone sits on the spectrum from reversible inflammation to established scarring, often before symptoms are obvious. Testing enables earlier recognition of harmful drinking, more precise staging of disease, and objective monitoring of abstinence and recovery over time. It also guides treatment intensity—supporting decisions about counseling, nutrition, and medication—and helps clinicians anticipate complications by showing whether injury is ongoing, bile is backing up, or the liver’s production capacity is faltering. In short, these biomarkers turn hidden liver stress into actionable information.

Why are Alcoholic Liver Disease biomarkers important?

Alcoholic Liver Disease biomarkers are the liver’s dashboard: they show cell injury (AST, ALT), bile flow and alcohol-related enzyme induction (GGT), bilirubin handling, and the liver’s protein-making capacity (albumin). Because the liver regulates metabolism, detoxification, hormones, clotting, and fluid balance, changes here ripple across the brain, gut, immune, endocrine, and cardiovascular systems.

Typical reference ranges: AST about 10–40, ALT 7–56, GGT 10–60, total bilirubin 0.1–1.2, albumin 3.5–5.0. For organ health, AST, ALT, and GGT are best at the low end of normal; bilirubin tends to be optimal low-to-mid; albumin is healthiest mid-to-high. In Alcoholic Liver Disease, AST usually exceeds ALT (often by more than twofold), GGT rises with enzyme induction and cholestasis, bilirubin climbs with jaundice and dark urine, and albumin falls as synthetic function declines—manifesting as edema, ascites, fatigue, muscle loss, and bruising. Women can develop these abnormalities at lower alcohol exposure than men; adolescents generally have lower baseline ALT/AST.

When values are low, AST, ALT, GGT, and bilirubin typically reflect minimal current injury and unobstructed bile flow—reassuring for Alcoholic Liver Disease activity. Low albumin is different: it signals impaired hepatic protein synthesis or poor nutrition, worsening swelling, orthostatic lightheadedness, and frailty; during pregnancy, albumin runs lower from hemodilution rather than liver failure.

Big picture: these markers map liver inflammation, cholestasis, and synthesis—the forces that drive fibrosis, cirrhosis, portal hypertension, and encephalopathy. Patterns like AST:ALT >2 and elevated GGT also track oxidative stress and cardiometabolic risk. Watching them together links liver status to whole-body outcomes and long-term survival.

What Insights Will I Get?

Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) testing matters because the liver powers energy production, regulates metabolism, shapes cholesterol and glucose balance, clears toxins and drugs, builds proteins for blood and immunity, and maintains hormone and micronutrient homeostasis. Damage from alcohol disrupts these systems. At Superpower, we test AST, ALT, GGT, Bilirubin, and Albumin.

AST and ALT are enzymes inside liver cells (aminotransferases). When cells are injured, they leak into blood; in ALD, AST typically rises more than ALT (often a ratio >2), reflecting mitochondrial injury and B6 depletion. GGT is a membrane enzyme induced by alcohol and bile duct stress; it rises with alcohol exposure and cholestasis. Bilirubin is the breakdown pigment of hemoglobin; elevated levels signal impaired uptake, processing, or excretion by the liver (hepatocellular dysfunction or bile flow blockage). Albumin is the main blood protein made by the liver; it reflects synthetic capacity and oncotic pressure.

For stability, low and steady AST/ALT suggest little ongoing injury; abrupt or persistent elevations signal active damage. An AST-dominant pattern with elevated GGT supports alcohol-related injury; falling values suggest recovery. Normal bilirubin indicates preserved excretory function; rising bilirubin indicates worsening cholestasis or hepatocellular failure. Normal albumin indicates good reserve; low albumin points to chronic dysfunction and fragility of the system.

Notes: Interpretation is influenced by age, sex, pregnancy (lower albumin), body habitus, recent strenuous exercise or muscle injury (raises AST/ALT), hemolysis or Gilbert syndrome (alters bilirubin), heart failure and sepsis, obesity/NAFLD, and medications or alcohol-inducing enzymes (notably GGT). Assay methods and lab reference intervals vary.